RUSH: These studies are popping up everywhere. First, we had Stanford University. They did a survey — their own survey — medical research. Stanford is not a bunch of slouches. Stanford is not some conservative institution of higher learning. Stanford’s high up on the approved leftist list, okay?
They sent their own medical team out to do a survey of Santa Clara County, California. Santa Clara is loosely in the Bay Area. It’s the home of the San Francisco 49ers, for example. They found that the number of people infected with the coronavirus in Santa Clara County is 50 to 85 times what has been reported by the official CDC numbers, task force numbers, and all that — 50 to 85 times.
The death rate stayed static. The number of people who’ve died is the number of people who’ve died. The task force numbers of people affected like in 2,000/2,500, whatever it was. A factor of 50 to 85 times higher brought the death rate, the mortality rate from coronavirus down from 2% to 4% to 0.1%, which puts it on par with the flu or maybe less.
Next, USC (the University of Spoiled Children) in Southern California. They did their own survey of Los Angeles County. They found the same thing. The number of infected people in Los Angeles County is 55 times higher than the task force numbers. Once again, reducing the mortality rate, because the death rate is what it is.
The death rate, number of people who’ve died, stays. The number of people affected is a wild guess, ’cause we can’t test everybody. So the number of people affected is essentially the number of people who’ve reported it. But there’s all kinds of people that get this disease and never know they’ve got it. That’s called asymptomatic.
They’re running around with it, but it doesn’t affect them. They can spread it. They are contagious. So this is essentially an antibody test. So in LA County and Santa Clara County, they have found that the mortality rate is around 0.1%. These two studies have come under merciless attack, because there’s all kinds of money and there’s all kinds of reputations attached to the task force numbers.
It’s interesting that the governor of California… There’s one other aspect in California. They have discovered that the first coronavirus death in California occurred in February, like months before they thought the first death occurred, which lends credence to the fact that the disease has been in California longer than anybody knew.
So, “California Governor [Gavin Newsom] Orders Autopsies Back to December to Find out How Long Coronavirus Has Been in the State.” He has “ordered medical examiners and coroners across the state [of California] to review autopsies dating back to December to ‘help guide a deeper understanding of when this pandemic really started to impact Californians.'”
Now, this is important too. Now, we hope we can trust whatever results we get from this. But keep in mind: Both the reported infection rate and the number of deaths — and thus the percentage — in California is way below New York, way below New York. California has 40 million people. They have people traveling from China, leaving for China.
I mean, they got airports connected to China, 5,000 people a day going back and forth, what with the Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations and all. So their numbers are way below New York, and you know what the official explanation is? The official explanation is, “Well, California got a head start on social distancing.”
Oh. How big a head start?
“Well, they started three days before.”
Are you telling me that this difference in the infection rate and death rate in California is ’cause they got a three-day head start over New York in social distancing? Sorry, folks. Doesn’t fly. Now, “Preliminary Study Suggests 13% of New York State Residents Have Contracted Coronavirus.”
“[I]f the results are born [sic] out by further studies, it would indicate that the prevalence of coronavirus is much more widespread than previously believed,” and much less deadly. “As of Thursday,” that would be today, “there have been 260,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in New York State, with 147,000 in New York City.”
So I guess the models predicting the prevalence of the virus in New York City were wrong again: 260,000 confirmed cases in New York as of today. This study that has studied antibodies “suggests up to 2.7 million New Yorkers have been infected.” That’s 13% of New York state. “Governor Cuomo announced these results at his [“I’m governor and you’re not”] press briefing” today.
“Cuomo pointed out that according to the results, about one in five people in New York City alone (over 1.7 million residents) have coronavirus antibodies, indicating that [these people] had either come down sick with coronavirus and had not realized it, or had asymptomatic cases.” We don’t know. We have no idea.
But wait a minute, Governor. You just said, the disease is death, and now you’re telling us that 1.7 million residents have it, didn’t know they had it, or didn’t suffer greatly from it. “The survey was conducted at pop-up clinics outside supermarkets across the state, with 3,000 participants,” the same number in Santa Clara County.
“This is the first statewide antibody test completed in [Nueva Orc], so it is not clear if the survey results present a full picture of the situation. However, if the results are born [sic] out by further studies, it would indicate that the prevalence of coronavirus is much more widespread than [anybody] previously believed,” including Dr. Fauci.
The survey indicates that the vast majority of [New York]’s cases are concentrated in New York City, Long Island, and Westchester and Rockland counties… Upstate New York has relatively few cases,” and it says here, “The news comes after Santa Clara, California, officials announced that the first death from coronavirus in the state was on February 6, three weeks earlier than first reported.”
These are the famous antibody tests. What these tests do is determine whether somebody has had the virus. See, what happens is (I gave a very simple explanation yesterday) you get coronavirus, and you will have the antibodies. Your body develops antibodies to it, and in some people’s cases, those antibodies are enough to fight it off.
Either the symptoms are very slight, or you don’t feel any at all. You never know you’ve had it — and might think, if it doesn’t affect you badly, that you just had a cold or some kind of a strange flu. In the meantime, the antibodies present an immunity. So the next time the virus enters your body, it dies. It’s killed by the antibodies.
Now, what people don’t know is: For how long does that circumstance last.? How long are the antibodies active? Six months? One month? A year? Nobody knows yet. But what we are finding out is that there are far, far more people in this country who have been infected by coronavirus and don’t even know it.
Either they were asymptomatic, or their symptoms were such that it wasn’t worth going to the clinic or the hospital. Maybe you call the doctor. “I got a little flu, stuffy nose,” whatever it was. But it didn’t present in any way like an emergency, and they didn’t think anything of it. I’ve got people California that I know who tell me they thought they had this in December.
It’s something they’ve never experienced before. It didn’t keep ’em down, they were able to go to work, but it was something strange. They just chalked it up to the flu. Some people had it bad. Some people barely had anything. But they are now convinced that they had it.
This is back in December. It’s why the governor is wanting to redo autopsies from back then. So, in addition to the antibody presence killing the virus when it enters the body with antibodies, this is also dramatically lowering the actual mortality rate.
In Santa Clara County uploaded and LA County, it’s 0.1%. That’s right on par with the number of people killed by the flu every year. So it’s three states… Well, it’s two states and three different reports: Two in California, one in New York.
I asked vice president presence, what’s your reaction? The task force surely sees these things. They see these surveys; they see these studies. And he said they look at ’em, they study ’em, they factor them into things that they’re doing, calculations that they are making. The bottom line is that there is a — you could call this — well, because it is. You can call this a version of herd immunity.
It’s exactly what herd immunity is, is people getting the virus, coming down with it. Ninety-eight percent of the people recover from it, they develop an immunity. That’s herd immunity. And you get it by getting the virus. You don’t get it by not getting it. You don’t get it by staying at home, sequestering, social distancing. That’s not how immunity happens. You’re not building up immunity by staying at home. You’re not doing one thing other than not exposing yourself to people that might have it. But you’re not building up any immunity.
Anyway, these numbers just continue to give me optimism. At some point they’re gonna have to be acknowledged. Dr. Scott W. Atlas is an opinion contributor at TheHill.com. He has a piece today: “The Data Is In — Stop the panic and end the total isolation.”
He writes, “The tragedy of the COVID-19 pandemic appears to be entering the containment phase. Tens of thousands of Americans have died, and Americans are now desperate for sensible policymakers who have the courage to ignore the panic and rely on facts. Leaders must examine accumulated data to see what has actually happened, rather than keep emphasizing hypothetical projections –” meaning the models “– combine that empirical evidence with fundamental principles of biology established for decades; and then thoughtfully restore the country to function.
“Five key facts are being ignored by those calling for continuing the near-total lockdown. Fact 1: The overwhelming majority of people do not have any significant risk of dying from COVID-19.” Governor “and you’re not” Andrew Cuomo, “The virus is death. The virus is death.” No, it’s not. Stanford University survey, Los Angeles USC survey.
“Fact 2: Protecting older, at-risk people eliminates hospital overcrowding. Fact 3: Vital population immunity is prevented by total isolation.”
I just said, you’re not building up any immunity by sequestering, by quarantining. You’re not building up an immunity to anything by avoiding people. You’re only delaying. At some point they’re gonna let you loose, we think. It’s only then that you’re gonna encounter — let’s say if you’ve been behaving and you have been sequestering and you’ve been practicing social distancing. You’re hiding. You’re hiding. But you’re not building up an immunity in the process.
“Fact 4: People are dying because other medical care is not getting done due to hypothetical projections.”
Meaning people with cardiovascular disease or other things are not being treated because the hospital beds are being kept open for COVID-19 patients who are not showing up.
“Fact 5: We have a clearly defined population at risk who can be protected with targeted measures.” The elderly, the preexisting condition crowd, people with diabetes, heart disease. We know who the at-risk groups are, and we can sequester them. So there is a rising tide now of pressure to get the economy open.